Indians in America
- 3.22 million Indians in America
- 38% doctors in the U.S. are Indian
- 12% of scientists in America are Indians
- 36% of NASA employees are Indians
- 34% of Microsoft employees are Indians
- 28% of IBM employees are Indians
- 17% of Intel Employees are Indians
- 13% of Xerox employees are Indians
- 23% of Indian community in America holds a green card.
(These facts were published in a German magazine which
deals with world history.)
Similar successes have been achieved in the United
Kingdom and other countries with established NRI communities. In the UK,
NRI's have
contributed richly to mainstream British life: through participation in the democratic
process, both as members of parliaments and life peers, through commercial success and, of
course, through the ubiquitous curry house! The way the British have taken to the curry is
unprecedented in the culinary history of the world.
There is a huge pool of largely untapped resources -
financial, technological and social - that awaits the various ministries of that
enlightened government which wholeheartedly decides to embrace the Indian Diaspora. One
only needs to look at the kickstart given to the economies of Israel and China by their
overseas communities to see the potential of NRI's.
Mother Nature has planted in every human heart
an
inexplicable and undeniable bond with his or her country of origin. Yet, the bond between
NRI's and India is most curious: we are, as a community, proud to be Indian in origin, but
when it comes to rationalizing that bond in terms of investment in India or even, more
simply, just visiting the country, we have failed abysmally. However, the blame is not
ours alone. Successive governments in India have at best ignored the Diaspora and at worst
penalized them.
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